ASSOCIATION BETWEEN MENTAL HEALTH DISTRESS AND WORK PRODUCTIVITY: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY | ||||
| Egyptian Journal of Occupational Medicine | ||||
| Article 4, Volume 45, Issue 2, May 2021, Page 51-68 PDF (1.8 MB) | ||||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/ejom.2021.170562 | ||||
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| Authors | ||||
| Elotla SF* 1; Gaafar SEM1; Ameen AE2; Fouad AM2 | ||||
| 1Department of Public Health, Community Medicine, Occupational & Environmental Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Egypt. | ||||
| 2Department of Public Health, Community Medicine, Occupational & Environmental Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Egypt | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| Introduction: Mental health of workers is an essential determinant of their work productivity and their overall health. Poor mental health contributes meaningfully to a range of chronic physical illnesses such as hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disorders. Besides, mental health distress can severely impact the ability to work, leading to increased absenteeism and/or presenteeism. Consequently, employers and businesses are negatively affected by poor mental health among their employees due to the lost productivity and profits, as well as the increased direct costs of managing these health problems. Aim of work: To investigate the association between mental health distress and work productivity in terms of absenteeism and presenteeism. Materials and Methods: One-hundred and eighty male shipyard-workers were interviewed using a predesigned questionnaire for sociodemographic characteristics, work characteristics, lifestyle behaviors, perceived health status, and chronic diseases. Mental health distress was measured using the Kessler psychological distress scale (K6), while measures of work productivity (absenteeism and presenteeism) were calculated according to the scoring guide of the Health and Work Performance Questionnaire (HPQ-short form). Results: The mean age of participants was 48.3 years (± 8.17). Operators and service-workers constituted 73.3% of all participants, while professionals and administrative workers represented 16.7% and 10%, respectively. Eight workers (4.4%) had high mental health distress, while 12.2% had moderate distress. The mean days of absenteeism and presenteeism were significantly higher among participants with moderate or high mental distress compared to low distress (p < 0.001). Further, within each level of mental distress, the mean presenteeism days were significantly higher than the mean absenteeism days. Moderate and high mental distresses were associated with 2.1 and 3.9 times greater rates of absenteeism and presenteeism compared to low mental distress. Conclusion: Mental health distress is associated with both higher absence and presenteeism rates. Effective workplace policies for mental health promotion and case management could yield substantial increases in worker’s productivity. | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| Mental health; Presenteeism; Absenteeism and Work productivity | ||||
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